Thankful

Be Thankful
by Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something
for it gives you an opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times
during those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
they will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you are tired and weary
because it means you made a difference.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Squat

The following is an actual conversation.

"Jacob, we need to have lunch and take a nap. You're being VERY naughty"

"I'm not tired!"

"Jacob, we'll see. Sometimes, if you don't eat, you are naughty and you haven't eaten squat today."

Whining, "I don't wanna eat squat! I don't like squat!"

"Mommy, do you like squat?"

Scene from McDonald's

We went for lunch after having Jacob's "4" pictures taken this morning. There were some turkey shaped cut outs on the walls. Jacob says, "Boggle, Boggle, Boggle! That's what the turkey says, Daddy!"

Lucky Me

We woke up yesterday morning and Jacob informed us that he was poopie. I asked him if his mommy could change him. "No! It's too stinky for mommy. You do it."

yet my mouth put me there anyway!

I need to clarify a couple of things from my previous post.

I try to be very careful of what I say. I try to remember that writing and email rarely come across as intended - for anyone. We can all read the same thing 10 times and have 10 different interpretations of what we read. I certainly don't want to offend anyone. I guess, maybe I do get a few digs in here and there - and you can take those as you will, I think I have too big of a heart to really tell anyone off. I would hurt myself a hundred times over before I could intentionally hurt anybody. If I do continue here, I will certainly be more conscious of that.

There is nothing, NOTHING, I love more than to have my family together for Jacob's birthday or any time for that matter. This year, we planned to downsize, a lot of things. Jacob's birthday included. All I had planned for was to have a simple dinner and cupcakes with Jacob's family that live close to us, as in nearby. I feel, that it's not right to have people coming and not offer a full meal - especially from out of town. Then if I include my whole family, I have to include Jeremy's whole family and then I have 25 people to feed! I simply didn't want to do it all this year. It was not my intention to make anyone feel left out. I'm sorry I didn't word that better.

I have to apologize to all of you. Those I have hurt with my words or my digs. I certainly didn't intend to hurt anyone. I feel horribly that I did. I never intended this blog to be a vehicle for that. I always wanted to be honest, from my heart and just plain real.

I'm going to take a break here, from blogging, for awhile. I need to decide how/if I want to write this blog going forward. Do I want to have a 'sunshine and roses' blog that gives you the shiny details of Jacob's life or do I want to continue to write from my heart? Do I even want to write at all?

I've enjoyed the friendships that I've found out here and I'll continue to read and comment (carefully) as I sort myself out. We'll see what the future brings for me.

My apologies and certainly my regrets,
Gail

Staying out of the Devil's Workshop

I've been sitting here this morning with this window open, wondering what I was going to write about. I haven't posted in a while. It's not that I don't have anything to say but, I don't have anything to say. I do have a lot on my mind - Edna for instance. I haven't talked to her in a couple of weeks. We seem to argue about everything as of late.

I had told Jeremy the other day that I feel like I have hundreds of things to do but, I really don't. I have some busy things to do yet, nothing on a deadline.

Jeremy's niece, Natalie, her birthday is tomorrow. I love my nieces, and Jeremy's too, I really do, but that Natalie, I just can't help it - she's got my heart and my purse strings! I'm thanking God today that I'm as organized and ahead of the game as I usually am - I had her birthday on my calendar a week LATE! Thankfully, I had finished her shopping at lunch yesterday and after a frantic wrapping frenzy, my MIL will pick up her gift tonight!

We're waiting to see if Jeremy has to work any part on Thanksgiving. His restaurant will be open this year. We're traveling to my sister's for Thanksgiving. I'm tired of not getting an RSVP or counting on 8 people for dinner and have only 2 show up. I don't want to go far without Jeremy. I don't want to travel alone with JJ either. I might cook a small meal for us to have leftovers.

The day after turkey, we'll start putting our Christmas tree up and decorating for Christmas. I have 3 (now) sets of ornaments/themes to decorate my tree. We have all of our special or gifted ornaments. I have a set of Disney collector ornaments and recently, Edna gave me back the Hallmark Mary's Angels ornaments that I had bought her every Christmas since 1991 (I'm missing 4 to the whole set!). I'm still not sure how I feel about that, though I did decide to continue the collection until I've resolved my issues with it. I can't decide what set I want to use!

I have to get Jacob in to get his '4' pictures done. The coupons came yesterday!!

Shortly after Thanksgiving (December 7), my little boy turns 4! We're having lasagna with G & G H., G & G S., cousin Whiz, and I invited my brother and his family too. And rather than cake this year, Jacob and I are making POLICE cupcakes! It's just a little get together at home on a Monday night. Enough to celebrate with him. He's so excited for his birthday this year! I think the kids with December and January birthdays get the short end of the stick! People lump their Christmas/birthday together into one gift - where other kids get 2! They have to wait ALL year for both! That's not fair! And there's Edna, who will send him $4 for being 4 and nothing for Christmas.

I've been working on my Christmas gifts - or trying to. I had the majority together last February. I have a couple of things to assemble yet. I'm working on personalizing them now.

Soon, it'll be time for Jacob and I to tackle Christmas cookies. He's really into 'baking cake' these days. He pulls a chair over to the counter to 'help'. We'll likely just stick to cut-outs - not that we need anymore cookies than that in my house anyway!

I am looking forward to Christmas. Jacob is really into it. We have G & G S. to share in it with us this year. I have a week off from work. We're not traveling. The shrimp and crab legs are in the freezer already, along with the bacon wrapped filet for 2! Jacob's gifts are all stashed away, waiting to be wrapped. Jeremy and I are still wavering if we're shopping for each other or what we're doing this year.

I have a few other projects that I'm preparing for. My friend Ember, is pregnant (I love saying those words) after a lllooonggg road with infertility, with her daughter, and I'm putting some very special, homemade lovies together for them. It's so hard to finish the things I have going already when I really, really, really want to make PINK things! I can't wait to spoil this little girl!

As if this wasn't enough, I went and ordered a new library book - our library has something called MeL (Michigan E Library). If my library doesn't have a book that I want, I can request it from MeL and a library that does have it, will send it to my library for me - free of charge. Isn't that great? So, I have this book, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic to read. Imagine that!?! A book about an abandoned mental institution! I've been waiting a while for this one!

I'm also, going to start making soy candles. Another adventure! As if crochet, quilting, reading, sewing, and baking weren't enough!

I looked back over this post, and WOW! It does seem like I have a lot going on. Yes, I still read to my child, we still check out police cars a few nights a week and we try to walk when it's nice out. I'm not a person that can sit, idle. I can't watch a movie or TV without my hands being busy. It's just my nature, I guess. After all, "idle hands are the devil's workshop"!

Edna's Future

Some of you know that I went to Manistee on my 'vacation' a few weeks ago. Part of my time there was set aside to go and see Edna.

She hired a doofus to put new windows and new siding on her house. You know what I'm going to to tell you, huh? Yeah, you do. Edna got taken to the tune of approximately $25,000.00. The guys showed up. The did 'some' work. Shitty work. And they left!

She didn't get any estimates. He's not licensed - his wife holds the contractor's license and he 'works' under her license. Edna didn't check any references. She didn't ask any of the 5 of us kids for help. She paid most of the money up front and they kept adding little things and charging her $300 -$500 each time and she just kept writing them checks. The best part = they came door-to-door. The 'shakes' in the below picture are on the 3 peaks of the house. All 3 peaks, are different shades of gray!

We all have been pushing to get her to leave this 5 bedroom, formal living room, dining room, family room and library with 2 1/2 baths, that is bigger than mine, house for years. This project was Edna's plan to show us that she was fine and she's smarter than we are. It kinda backfired.

Her new deck. The red parts were the existing deck built when I was 3 or 4 (1976 or 1977).

There is about a 2 inch gap between the bottom ledge and the bottom of the window. This window is the only window with individual panes of glass. And, this window is the only window they ordered in the 'correct' size. All the rest are too short and they put in wood at the top to cover the difference.

Sue him, you say? For what? Can't revoke a license that he doesn't have. Can't log a complaint against his license. If he'd even show up for court, yeah, they'd issue a warrant, big deal! You can't get blood from a turnip! He'd never pay any judgement. Then too, Edna would be out the legal fees ON TOP of the repair costs! Is that worth it?

I also brought these boxes back with me. Four of them. Full of expired food. We're not talking a few months expired either. I realized I had taken all she'd let me have when I found a can of beef broth expired in March 2008 and she wouldn't let me take it. "It's only a year expired!", she said.

This is a jar of honey. From Edna's parents farm. Grandpa and Grandma had bees and they canned the honey. Grandpa died in 1992.

No, it's not your eyes. This cocktail sauce expired Sept-10-1986!

And this jelly in October of 1988!

Did you know that tomatoes do this to the can when they rot in the can? ME neither!

How about some antibiotic ointment that expired in 1978! Aw, why not?

So, I drove the almost 3 hours home, with this in the back of my Explorer along with 10 ton of Avon from 1964, praying the ENTIRE time that nothing would explode, to throw it all in my trash so she couldn't go back for it. I did catch her hoarding some of that Avon before I left.

At one point, sorting through this stuff out in my driveway, I started to tear and sniffle. Jeremy asked if I was okay. "You know, it's not easy taking pictures to document that your mother is losing her mind!", was my response. Though, it's been a long time coming, it was hard to admit that's what I was really up to.

I have to go back to the Avon a minute. I remembered some of that stuff from when I was a kid. I remember the coveted Avon closet that we weren't allowed to go in. There was amazing stuff in there that any little girl would want. And I did! I wanted those crayon lip glosses, the pins with the little girl perfume wax, the little lipsticks in ice cream cones, the pig in a tub soap, oh, I wanted them in the worst way! All those years, 20 years, they sat in that closet. I couldn't have them, I couldn't touch them. WTF am I going to do with them now!?! (If you're wondering, it's sitting in my home office while I watch some identical pieces on an internet auction site to see if I have anything that anyone would want.) Anyone interested in old Avon?

What's going to happen to my mother? I don't know. I guess this is my first step to document what I see and what happens. It has always been difficult (to say the least) with Edna and it's not going to get any easier. I didn't share these photos to make fun of her or to shame her. I couldn't keep it all to myself anymore. There is a long road ahead, a very long road, of figuring out where to turn with her or what to do with her and she is less than willing to take any turn at all.

I'm not sure who's going to travel this road. At some points, I think it'll be me alone. Then again, I'm sure some will be Cindy on her own. Some Karen alone. Some Gloria alone (I don't think my brother will talk to Edna through any of this - though, I'm sure he'd help behind the scenes). At other points, I think the four of us girls will be on the same road just at different intervals. One in the lead with the others lagging behind licking our wounds. I hope there will be some points where we are all at the same point but, Edna likes to turn us against each other. I hope we're strong enough to fight her without fighting ourselves.

Please, dear God, give us STRENGTH! Amen!

Happy Halloween!

This was our first Halloween with 2 set of grandparents that are close enough to visit. I told Jeremy, 'you know, some people complain about running to both parents for Halloween - I think I kinda liked it!'

We went out to the fire station by Jeremy's parents for a Halloween party. Of course, Jacob had to see the firetrucks.


And we stopped in to see Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Gordon. Jacob was thrilled to see them, do you think they were happy to see us!?!


Jacob was "a police officer, just like Chris!" If you asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, that was his answer. He donned all of his Novi garb and away he went! He had his gun, handcuffs, and a "talkie-talkie" on his belt.

Lastly, our pumkins. We carved them in a cat theme this year, in memory of Brady. Jacob came down the morning after we carved them and said "Wow! Those are cool cats!"